Swimming Pools in November
by EowynAhsokaLover
Summary: Wally has been dead for over a year and Artemis is still recovering. On Wally's birthday, Artemis returns to Central City. Roy finds her there and pushes her into a pool. Angst and smut ensures as feelings are brought to the surface.


**A/N: **Hi. This story takes place ~1 year after Wally's death in the final episode. While all the current romance in this piece is between Roy and Artemis, there is a bunch of Artemis reflecting on her feelings for Wally before he died, so if spitfire is morally repugnant to you, be warned. Then again, there is smut at the end, so you'll be rewarded for your patience.

Right now this is a one-shot but it could turn into a multi-chapter fic if I ever have the time and/or motivation. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy it and that the smut won't be horribly written.

* * *

Artemis dipped her toes in the water. The water rippled. Her eyes watched the ripples until they disappeared. She wiggled her toes again.

"That hard, huh?"

She ignored the voice and twitched her toes again.

She felt him sit down beside her. "I was trying to be nice."

"Don't try. You're horrible at being nice."

"You shouldn't be surprised."

"I'm not."

He sighed. She watched his feet join hers in the pool. They were big, bigger than hers, bigger than Wally's, and very scarred.

"Go away Roy."

"No."

She turned her head to look at him. His blue eyes looked back. "Go away!"

"No."

Artemis brought her feet out of the pool and jumped to her feet. "You and the team need to stop doing this."

"Doing what?" He had stood up too. He towered over her, but she didn't give a damn. That intimidation tactic hadn't worked on her in years.

"Trying to get me to start living again, or some bullshit like that. I've recovered, okay. I go out with the girls, I have a job." She crossed her arms across her chest. "So what if I haven't been on a date? It hasn't been much more than a year. And you can't blame me for being upset today of all days. It _is_ his birthday, after all."

"Is that why you're at a swimming pool in November?"

She didn't answer.

"You shouldn't brood so much. It's unhealthy."

"You don't say."

His face was expressionless."I was broken before Wally died."

She shuddered.

"Sorry. I-"

"What's your point, Roy?" She clamped down harder on her grief, her heart sinking down deeper in freezing water. "That you didn't care when Wally died? That, just because your first memory of meeting him wasn't yours, that it wasn't one of your best friends who died?" Roy scowled. She had struck a nerve. She didn't know which one, and, at this point, she didn't care. "You know what Wally would've done if you had died? Cried himself to sleep. He would've cried even if it was the other Roy who died, the one he wasn't friends with. That Roy even bothered to show up to Wally's funeral."

"You should stop. You should stop now." His voice was low, dangerous even. When they were younger, Roy's voice always held threat, but Artemis hadn't heard him sound like this since he started looking for the first Roy.

"He was a better man than you'll ever be. Wally and Speedy. You-"

He pushed her. Artemis fell into the pool with a loud splash, her body completely submerged. The water was so cold, she started to feel her insides freeze. She swam to the top of the water and flipped her back when she broke the surface. "What the hell, Roy! It's November!" She looked around. Roy wasn't standing by the side of the pool. She didn't see him anywhere.

Suddenly, she felt herself being pushed to one of the pool's walls. The rough concrete scratched her back. "Ow!" Her lips were assaulted and she instinctively relaxed into the kiss. Not until she realized that the half closed eyes were blue, not green, did she pool. "Fuck! Roy-"

His hands gripped her shoulders so tightly his knuckles turned white. He kissed her mouth again, then moved to her eyes, her ears, her neck. She pushed his head off of her. "Roy, it's-"

His eyebrows rose. "What? It's wrong? It's...?"

She gulped. She was going to tell him this was wrong, that he (they) should stop. That it was Wally West's fucking birthday, even if he wasn't around to celebrate it. She said, "Cold. It's cold."

"Cold?" He started laughing. Then he sobered. He bent toward her and whispered, "I could help warm you up."

She shifted uncomfortably. "You've been spending too much time with Jade."

"Oh yes?"

"Adults don't settle problems through sex."

"And you and Wally were great examples of that?"

She flushed, despite the freezing water they were still in. "We didn't!" she said, loudly. "We didn't settle things, big things, through sex. Sure, we had angry-you-forgot-our-anniversary-sex, but we didn't have I-killed-people-when-I-was-little-because-my-dad-m ade-me-so-now-I-feel-like-I'm-an-evil-person-sex." 

"Then how did you solve your daddy issues?"

"I...I suppose that...over time, I was able to figure myself and my life out more. I still have guilt and stuff, but I know I'm one of the good guys. At least, before Wally died."

He stared at her.

"What!" she snapped.

"I...I thought I wasn't affected by Wally's death."

"How could you be so stupid?"

He scowled at her.

"Sorry."

He ran his fingers through his hair, an action that reminded her so much of Wally, tears sprung up in her eyes. She blinked them back. "No. It's okay. I guess I had just gone through so much that I thought one more death didn't matter. I didn't even go to the funeral."

"No. You didn't."

"Speedy did, though. You don't have any idea how much I agonized over that."

"I can guess. Zee calls it the Batman syndrome."

"Calls what?"

"Beating yourself up over everything. Not letting anyone else help with your problems. Going solo. A lot of us have it bad."

"I could've stood to hear less from Wally about his problems."

"Me too."

In the sudden quiet, Artemis grew aware that Roy's face was still close to hers. His lips were purple from cold. Hers probably were too. "Look, can we get out of the pool?"

"Of course."

She turned around to face the pool's wall. She put her hands on the sidewalk that ran around the edge of the pool and straightened her arms, which lifted her torso out of the water. She lifted her knees onto the dry land and scrambled onto her feet. From there, she held down a hand for Roy. "Don't you dare pull me in."

Once he was on dry land too, Artemis said, "I have a hotel room."

"I figured, since you were swimming in a hotel pool."

She ignored him. "Do you have one?"

He shook his head. "Dick told me where you were and I took a zeta tube here."

She looked at him. His sweater was soaked; she could see the outline of his Red Arrow costume underneath it. "I don't think I still have any of Wally's clothes for you to change into."

He shrugged. "I can go-"

"No!" She looked slightly abashed. "Um, not in wet clothes, not in November. You can take a hot shower and I'll put your stuff on the heater." She started walking into the hotel, which was pretty empty at this time of year. Roy followed.

"You could have stayed with the Wests."

Artemis shook her head. "I'm not ready for that. Not yet."

* * *

They took the five flour elevator trip in silence. When they neared her hotel room door, she prayed the water hadn't affected her key card. She swiped it and to her relief it worked. Roy followed her inside into the small hotel room, with a single queen bed and a small flat-screen TV that probably only showed movies for $8.99.

She slid off her flip flops and strode over to the hotel room's minifridge. She opened it and pulled out a beer. "I came prepared." She held it up for him to see. "Want one?" He nodded. She tossed him the bottle, knowing he would catch it, and then, after opening a bottle for herself, tossed the bottle opener to him too.

"To Wally," he said.

"Wally," she repeated and drank. She sat down on the end of the queen bed beside Roy, both still in soaking clothes. After a moment, she asked, "You want first shower?"

"I'd like to get better acquainted with Samuel Adams, if it's all the same to you."

She shrugged. "Whatever." She stood up. "Will you put my clothes on the radiator? I'll leave my clothes outside the door." She pointed. Roy nodded.

Artemis walked into the hotel's small bathroom. She watched in the mirror as she struggled to get her wet, long sleeved shirt off, wondering all the time what the hell she was doing. She unbuttoned her pants and wriggled out of them. It was a relatively simple matter to take her underwear off, and she pushed the pile of clothes out of the bathroom with her foot. Then she closed the door and walked over to the shower. She turned the temperature to searing hot and stepped inside.

At some point, Roy had come into the bathroom. She wasn't sure when, so absorbed she had been in her shower, but she could hear him peeing into the toilet. When the noise stopped, she craned her head around the shower curtain.

He was zipping his pants up and stepping away from the toilet, and incidentally, closer to her. He had already taken off his shirt and vest. Artemis swallowed as his back came closer. Roy turned around and saw her looking. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Hm." He paused, then said, "How much longer will you be?"

"I don't know. But, if you want to, you could join me."

He stared at her.

"I thought about it. I mean, not for years, of course, I didn't even think about it, but today since you...the pool." She had heard that, over time, people began to act more like the people they lived, particularly if they no longer lived with them. She couldn't help but think it was true as she stumbled over words.

"I wouldn't bother with pride right now."

"Pot meet kettle."

Roy leaned down and kissed her. Hard. Still, she could feel his body trembling as he brought an arm around her and pushed her body closer to his.

She broke away. "You're afraid," she accused.

She saw his nostrils flare, his face barely an inch away. She could feel his hot breath on her face. "I don't want you to think I'm Wally."

"What? Afraid you won't measure up?" Artemis was worried about that too, but she figured that if she could get Roy riled up enough, the sex would be so _Roy_ that there would be no danger of thinking he was Wally.

Roy growled. He pushed her closer to him, only the bath walls separating their legs, and kissed her again. He ran his tongue down the separation of her lips, forcing her to open her mouth. Her hands went south and started unzipping his pants.

His hand stopped her. He breathed into her ear. "Condom?"

She swallowed and pointed to the cabinet below the sink. "The hotel,"' she panted, "provided some."

He smirked and walked over to the cabinet.

Artemis shifted back into the shower's range. She began running her hands down her body. She cupped her breasts, their size spilling out of her hands, her thumbs rubbing her nipples.

"Missed me?"

She turned to face him. "No." They both stood there, facing each other, completely naked. She felt his eyes range up and down her body, now it was no longer concealed by the shower curtain.

"Are we naked in a fun way?" he asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"Fuck you."

Then, before she knew it, before she had even blinked, he was on her. His lips pressed forcefully against her neck. His arms forced her body against his. They collided at strange angle, her shoulder boring into his chest. One of his hands, callused in the same places hers were but so much bigger, grabbed a breast and started kneading it. Her knees felt weak.

"Having trouble standing?"

"Only because I'm bored. I'm sure the other Roy could make a woman wet far faster than you."

He rammed her back into one of the shower's walls. Artemis accepted the probability that she would be strewn with bruises tomorrow. He kissed her again, and her mouth instantly opened for his. She felt his other hand, the one not pinching at her breasts and nipples, slide down her body. She shivered. It went further down. His hand rubbed casually against her crotch and her body let out a strangled gasp. A finger slid against her folds.

"Roy," she breathed.

"I don't think he could, actually." He petted her some more.

"You..." she couldn't finish the sentence.

His breaths were deep and fast too, but he said, "I'm surprised...at how submissive you are," his thumb pressed against her clitoris and she moaned, "did you really take little Wally lying down?"

Her anger flared. Dominance didn't matter when she had sex with Wally, not after the first few times. They had sex together, as a team. It didn't matter who was on top because they were the same person. They changed positions because of the thrill of adventure and to see what felt the best.

She grabbed Roy's shoulders and twisted him to the shower wall. She pressed one of her forearms against his shoulders, daring him to move. Her other hand went to his erection and began stroking his shaft. He shuddered.

"What else-what else do I need...to do Roy? Wear spiked heels?"

He grunted. Then a single word escaped him. "Harder."

She looked down at her hand, then back up at him. She smiled, her grin looking more like her sister's than she'd ever like to admit. "No. I don't think-think I will.

"Fucking tease." He lifted her up, as easily as if she was his bow. He wrapped one arm around her, pressing her chest against his. Then he inserted two fingers into her and started pumping.

She moaned.

"What? You'll have to speak louder."

"Fuck, Roy!"

"Sorry?"

She whimpered as he inserted a third finger. "Roy," she whimpered, nearly crying, "just fuck me already."

He thrust into her almost at the same time she felt her back collide into the wall. Her legs wrapped around him as her hands wound their way around his neck. Their bodies heaved together, her breasts pressed into his chest.

His hands grabbed her hips, intent on making his thrusts as deep as possible. "Art-e-mis," he panted.

She moaned, words impossible. It was all she could do to hold on; she half expected him to push her through the wall. "God! Roy!"

One of his hands left her hips and came up to squeeze a breast. "Roy, I'm-"

She felt him come, an incoherent but very masculine sound coming from his mouth. Moments later, she came too, screaming as he pinched a nipple.

* * *

The next morning, she registered that she hadn't mistaken Roy for Wally during any of their sex the previous day. She still compared their sex to hers and Wally's, but that was because she hadn't had sex with anyone but Wally in ages. When she did compare yesterday's sex with the sex she had with Wally, she decided that it was most similar to the sex she had at the beginning of her relationship with Wally. Not because Roy was inexperienced, far from it, but because of all the uncertain feelings. Artemis's and Wally's first kiss hadn't resulted in love, or at least not the kind that made her want to spend the rest of her life with Wally, but that didn't mean they didn't care about each other.

Last night, Roy had been rough, but it had still felt like he was holding back, unsure whether she, or possibly he, could handle it. It would wrong to say that he hadn't care about her last night—after the first time, he'd make sure that she came before him, although she half thought that was more because he got off seeing her writhe from his ministrations—but their passion yesterday hadn't been passion for each other, but rather, passion for the moment.

Roy's watch alarm, across the room from the bed, started going off. Roy, who had still been asleep, groaned.

Artemis, fluent in the I-just-woke-up language, understood him. She looked at the digital bedside clock. "It's eight Central time. I guess that means it's only six your time."

Roy groaned again. Then, it seemed as if he realized his arms were around Artemis, caging her to his chest. He withdrew his arms and sat up.

Artemis was sad to see his arms go. They were warm and she had admired Roy's arms for a long time. "What was that?" Suddenly, she was too shy to sit up and have the bed sheet slide down and reveal her naked chest. She propped her head up sideways with her arm so as to stay under the covers.

He stared at her, still groggy. "I think I have to get up. I think...I think I have something to do today."

"Well don't let me keep you."

His eyes traced her outline in the bed sheet. "You don't regret-"

"No," she stopped him. And to prove it, she sat up, letting the sheet fall off of her. Then, she slid out of the bed and stood up. "I'm going to get dressed. I need to go see Wally's grave, even if it has no body in it. I meant to yesterday, but..."

Roy nodded.

She walked over to his watch, resting on the room's desk, and turned the damn thing off. Then she walked to her suitcase and sifted around for clothes. All the while, she was aware of Roy watching her. He finally stood up when she was completely dressed. She didn't know whether he enjoyed being a voyeur or if it took him that long to collect his wits.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope Roy wasn't too Wally-ish. In the past, I've mostly written spitfire so I was afraid he'd start turning into Wally as I wrote the story. Anyway, thank you for reading and I appreciate any reviews.


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